


half-compete

by snototter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Loneliness, M/M, Repressed Emotions, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 19:16:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20711159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snototter/pseuds/snototter
Summary: vent. also inspired by jazz music





	half-compete

**Author's Note:**

> vent. also inspired by jazz music

They're sitting on the floor of the boy's lavatory, hidden behind the roulette of sinks in the middle.

Draco has to stop for a moment to take a look at Potter next to him, the kid he's been torturing for the past few years, and realized that he's going soft. Panic sets in.

It's always been _Draco_, _don't_ _turn_ _out_ _like_ _this_ and _Draco_, _don't_ _be_ _like_ _that_, but he wishes he could forget his father's pointless lectures and fall into Potter's arms right here and now.

It's always been the offhand comments against _homosexuals_ and _blood_ _traitors_, then came the strict lectures and _I_ _will_ _know_ _what_ _you_ _are_ _doing_, _Draco_. _Do_ _not_ _disappoint_ _me_.

He realizes he's been hurting Potter since he refused his hand shake on the first school day, because he's been working for the man who's been trying to kill the boy he's come to love so dearly.

He realizes that when he's around Potter, the boy feels like sitting at a warm and cozy fire in the dungeon and sounds like those soft jazz records Pansy sometimes plays for him – those are seemingly the only things that make him happy nowadays. He's never felt anything else around him. Potter is everything that's good and great and neat. Draco is not. He's a traitor, a coward. Fear sets in his stomach, and his lip quivers.

When Potter embraces him in a hug that he hasn't had in years, the deep kind, where there's an arm around your waist and a gentle hand stroking your hair and you're held like you're everything, like you mean the world (he's never had one of those), he's able to let out all the tears he's not cried in a long while.

Draco tries to choke out one apology after another, because he's sorry for trying to get Potter killed all the time and he really does mean it. He just hopes Potter is able to forgive him, because Draco doesn't know what he'll do if he doesn't.

_You're_ _fine_, Potter says. _It's_ _okay_, and Draco throws his arms around the other boy and clings to him with all his might, his head resting on Potter's shoulder as he lets out those last salty tears and hiccups. It's a start.


End file.
